Fun Class Rules for Elementary Students

Classroom Management Improves With Rules That Engage Students

Aug 6, 2009

Classroom rules that engage the students will be more likely to be understood and followed throughout the school year.

Kindergarten through second grade students are young and silly and silly rules will often help them remember how to act in the classroom. Remembering the keys to writing good classroom rules will help as well, and keep students focused on learning and having fun in class.

Rules for Writing Classroom Rules

When writing class rules, it is important for teachers to keep a few things in mind. First, no matter what grade, there should only be 3-5 total classroom rules. Having more rules will make it difficult for students to remember and difficult for teachers to enforce.

Second, classroom rules should be stated in the positive, not the negative. This means the rule: Don’t get out of your seat becomes: Stay seated.

Basically, teachers need to state the behaviors they wish to see in their students instead of stating the behaviors they do not wish to see. While this can be difficult for some rules, like no hitting, with a little creativity everything can end up with a positive spin: Respect each other.

Cute Class Rules for Young Elementary Students

Sometimes adding a cute spin on the classroom rules will help younger students remember them during class. Here are a few ideas:

Show your armpits: This is a cute way to remind students to raise their hand before speaking in class.

6 legs on the floor: This rule will help keep students safe as it asks them to keep both of their legs down on the floor as well as the four chair legs.

YARFYOA (you are responsible for your own actions): While this one may be more difficult to remember, it can be a unique way to teach students responsibility. Teachers need to be sure and have a class discussion on what it looks like to be responsible for one’s own actions.

Measure your voice: this will help keep the sound to a manageable level in the classroom. A zero inch voice is silence in the classroom, a two inch voice can be a whisper, a six inch voice can be normal inside talking voice and a twelve inch voice can be for speaking to the entire class.

Class Rules That Engage Older Elementary Students

Older elementary students may find the cute rules listed above as too silly for them to follow. Instead of insulting their intelligence, teachers should find another way to help them remember the rules. One great method used by many teachers is to have the students come up with the rules themselves. Find out how to effectively allow students to create their own class rules.

Finding ways to engage students when explaining the classroom rules will help any teacher have greater classroom management. Students who do not understand the rules or do not see how they apply to them will not follow the rules, causing teachers difficulties down the road.

The copyright of the article Fun Class Rules for Elementary Students in New Teacher Support is owned by Jennifer Wagaman. Permission to republish Fun Class Rules for Elementary Students in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.